The Sooners used a solid team effort on defense to win their sixth straight game.

"All wins are good," OU head coach Sherri Coale said. "It wasn't quite as pretty as we would have liked for it to be, but give them credit, Marist plays really hard. They're very well-coached and they're hard to guard and we didn't shoot it very well. So a double-digit win, shooting it as poorly as we did, we'll take that and run with it."

Marist's Emma O'Connor, who scored 18 points, converted a layup with 8 minutes remaining to get the Red Foxes within 1. Oklahoma would finish the game with a 17-5 run.

Whitney Hand dove into the baseline seats to swat an errant Ellenberg three-point attempt into Hook's hands for a jumper that gave Oklahoma a five-point lead. Two possessions later, Ellenberg picked off a halfcourt pass for a layup to increase OU's advantage to 59-50.

"It seems like there's always moments that if you can grab them and bottle them you can change the destiny of the game," Coale said. "I thought Whitney's save that Morgan converted and then Vegas (Ellenberg) followed that play by taking a charge at the other end. That really gave us that cushion and that ignition that we needed."

Hand had her first double-double of the season, and sixth of her career, with 12 points and 13 rebounds. She also totaled a career-high three blocks.

Ellenberg grabbed six rebounds, dished four assists and had three steals in another all-around game from the OU sharpshooter.

"We see different teams that do similar things, so it makes it a little easier," Ellenberg said. "But just sticking to the game plan and focusing on those key things like jumping to the ball and help defense, you just have to really perfect those little things. But we know what we're doing; you just have to do it."

"I thought we played a great game for about 30 minutes," Marist head coach Brian Giorgis said, "and then I think we ran out of gas. I think OU turned it up and showed why they're the team they are, why they're No. 12 in the country when we struggled finding shots down the stretch."